Editor, Gazette-Journal:

If Bette Davis were to drive through Gloucester today, she would surely repeat her line, made famous in the movie “Beyond the Forest”—“What a dump!”

In the 15 years I have lived here, I have never seen so much litter along our roadways. In many places, our county resembles third-world countries I visited before I retired. Clean Gloucester Day is this Saturday, March 10, but I will be pleasantly surprised if it makes much of a dent as the problem is so bad.

This weekend would be an ideal opportunity for all those who are participating in VDOT’s Adopt-A-Highway program to clean their assigned locations (Boy Scout Troop #133 really has their work cut out for them on T.C. Walker from Route 17 to Page Road). But litter pickups treat the symptom, not the cause.

In my opinion, a major cause is the lack of education. Education can take many forms: formal education in the schools, parental guidance, disciplinary action by law enfo...